BlackBerry DevCon

BBX

The big announcement of the conference was BBX — RIM's merging of BlackBerry OS with QNX.

Developers will be able to target the platform using C/C++ or via HTML5 packages.

Tomb Raider

The vast majority of the keynote's demonstrations were of games — they showed off the hardware acceleration that the PlayBook is capable of.

HTML5

RIM expects the vast majority of applications developed for its BBX platform to be built with HTML5. This provides the added bonus of being able to target existing BlackBerry handsets.

The application shown above is an example of such an application.

WebGL

This application takes advantage of WebGL and ran quite nicely.

Cascades

Cascades is a UI framework coupled with RIM's new Native SDK, which uses C++ to create interfaces, such as this photo-viewing application that has the photos fall onto the screen as the user scrolls through.

Cascades for business

This Cascades application analyses a user's communication sources.

Citrix Receiver

Citrix showed its Citrix Receiver, which allows PlayBook users to use a virtual Windows Desktop and run virtual applications. After all the games were shown during the keynote it was nice to have a useful application aimed squarely at BlackBerry's traditional users.

AIR

This game was created using Abode AIR.

Android runtime

This pool application was created for Android and uses BBX's Android runtime.

BBX frameworks

An overview of the frameworks and APIs available for BBX.

HDMI output

Using the PlayBook's HDMI output, attendees were able to play games on televisions and use the PlayBook as a steering wheel. While fine in theory, it was actually easier to look at the PlayBook in practice.

Beetroot, pineapple and egg

While it may have been subliminal to most attendees, they were exposed to the delight of having beetroot, egg and pineapple on a burger.

BBX

The big announcement of the conference was BBX — RIM's merging of BlackBerry OS with QNX.

Developers will be able to target the platform using C/C++ or via HTML5 packages.

About Chris Duckett

Some would say that it is a long way from software engineering to journalism, others would correctly argue that it is a mere 10 metres according to the floor plan.During his first five years with CBS Interactive, Chris started his journalistic advent...

Full Bio

Some would say that it is a long way from software engineering to journalism, others would correctly argue that it is a mere 10 metres according to the floor plan.During his first five years with CBS Interactive, Chris started his journalistic adventure in 2006 as the Editor of Builder AU after originally joining the company as a programmer.Leaving CBS Interactive in 2010 to follow his deep desire to study the snowdrifts and culinary delights of Canada, Chris based himself in Vancouver and paid for his new snowboarding and poutine cravings as a programmer for a lifestyle gaming startup.Chris returns to CBS in 2011 as the Editor of TechRepublic Australia determined to meld together his programming and journalistic tendencies once and for all.In his free time, Chris is often seen yelling at different operating systems for their own unique failures, avoiding the dreaded tech support calls from relatives, and conducting extensive studies of internets -- he claims he once read an entire one.